Boundaries
by Madam Facilier
Summary: She was just a child when she met him, an aloof teenager who lived on the sacred mountain. Having lived longer than her, he knew the extent of the damage her kind could create. Yet he continued to wait for her at their usual meeting place every summer. He gave her only one condition to follow if she wanted to visit him: "Don't touch me."


**This story was inspired by the short film** Hotarubi no Mori e (Into the Forest of Fireflies' Light, in English) **and an AMV called "** you can be king again **" by** youlazybum. **I watched the AMV first and since then I couldn't get this idea out of my head.**

 **Wondering who the leading man is? Well, what are you waiting for? Read and find out!**

 **But first** — **Disclaimer: Hiro Mashima owns the wonderful characters and storyline of Fairy Tail. The only thing I can claim is the plot of this story.**

* * *

A gentle wind blew through the forest, relieving the inhabitants of the mountain from the heat of the summer sun. Birds took flight as the breeze rustled the branches that they rested upon. A chestnut fell from a burr suspended on a branch. It barely fell one meter when a hand caught it during its descent.

The one who caught the nut stood on a sturdy branch as he leaned against the trunk, examining his prize. He turned the chestnut in his hand, stopping when he found a small hole in the shell. Shaking his head, he let the nut fall to the ground, where it joined the rest of the burrs and nuts that fell from the tree.

He stood on the branch with a hand to the trunk as the wind blew again. He thought about how strange it was for the wind to blow strongly at this time of the summer. But the melody of the cicadas' song reached his ears, reassuring him that the mountain was at peace. That everything in his home was safe.

His ears twitched as he caught a sound that never resounded within the forest.

Someone was crying.

Was one of the inhabitants injured? But the sobbing didn't belong to anyone he knew. The wailing that reached his ears was foreign to him, but he recognized the fear that intertwined itself with sadness. Whatever it was, the one who was crying needed help.

Unable to ignore the wails any longer, he jumped down from the branch. He descended to the ground too gracefully, as if the wind decided to cushion his fall. Once his feet touched the ground, he vanished.

* * *

A little blonde girl sobbed as she near the edge of the lake. She wandered around for so long, seeking the place where she started, but she couldn't find the entrance to the forest again. Why hadn't she listened to her mother when she told her not to wander into the mountain? Now she was stuck in the forest, unable to return to her parents at their summer house. She cried even louder at the prospect of never seeing her parents again.

"Now what's a little girl like you doing in the forest?"

The girl stopped crying and looked behind herself, staring at the trees that marked the beginning of the woods. There was no one there, but she swore she had heard the voice call out to her from there. "Wh-who's there?" she yelled at the trees, her voice trembling.

"Didn't your parents ever tell you not to wander into the mountain alone?" The voice asked. A figure stepped out from behind a tree, but kept his hand against the trunk.

The little girl could only stare at the figure, unsure if she should feel awe or fear. The figure wore what seemed to resemble a karate uniform, except the entire outfit was black and the sleeves of his shirt reached only to his elbows instead of his wrists. It would have looked like he came out of a martial arts lesson if it weren't for the mask. A mask hid his face from the girl, portraying instead the face of a wolf, complete with pointed ears near the top.

The girl remembered what her mother had told her when she warned her about the mountain. Spirits lived in the forest, where they resided away from humans. Some of them were friendly, but some of them weren't so kind to humans. Bad children who played in the mountains were eaten by those evil spirits.

Looking at the figure near the trees, he didn't look like an evil spirit. If she included the mask that covered his face, he looked like a human teenager looking to scare children who wandered into the mountain without permission.

A teenager who _must_ know the way back to the entrance.

The little blonde girl ran at him, happy to see another person in the forest. She was saved! She could get out of here and see her parents again!

Her arms reached out to hug him in joy, only to meet empty air before she landed face-first on the grass. She pulled herself up from the ground, looking around for the teen. She found him standing behind her, closer to the edge of the lake and away from the trees.

She stood up and tried to approach him again, only for the teen to back away from her. "Sorry, little girl," the teen said, though his voice seemed to carry no apology, "but I'm not the kind to be touched by humans."

The blonde girl tilted her head in confusion. "You said 'human'...does that mean you're not human?"

"Well," the teen said as he used his right hand to gesture to himself, "if you don't think I'm human, what do you think I am?"

The girl examined him carefully. He was asking a trick question: of course he had to be human! What else could he be? He couldn't be a wolf either: the mask he wore looked like the masks she would find on display during the summer festivals.

So he wasn't a wolf, so that left only one option. "You're a ninja," she said, causing the teen to slump in disbelief.

The teen scratched his head, wondering what in the world was going through the girl's head. He could try to argue that she didn't know any better at her age, but what made her think he was a _ninja_ , for crying out loud?

The girl must have thought he was too distracted since she tried to run towards him again. The teen backed away in time, hoping that she would finally get the message. But the child was curious: she wanted to know why he didn't want her to touch him. Every time she came near him, he seemed to vanish, only to reappear several meters behind her.

After several minutes, the girl panted while the masked teen watched from the edge of the lake. She was tired, worn out from chasing him around. Maybe she would realize how late it was starting to get and ask him to lead her out—

She ran towards him, catching him off guard while he had stood there contemplating what to do with her. The girl almost succeeded in touching his hand if he hadn't taken several steps backwards.

The girl gasped as she stared at the teen's feet. The masked teen tilted his head in confusion, wondering what caused her to back away from him now. He didn't seem to realize that he was standing on the lake. "Now what's the matter?" he asked.

The girl pointed a shaking finger at the teen's feet. "Y-Y-You're standing on water," she stammered. The masked teen looked down at his feet, which rested on the lake's surface. He didn't seem bothered by it as he walked towards the lake edge, where the girl stood rooted to the spot. "You really aren't a human."

The masked teen clapped slowly, as if he were applauding her. "Congratulations, little girl. Now that you know that I'm neither a human nor a ninja, would you like to leave the mountain now?"

"B-but the forest is dark and scary," the girl mumbled, "can't I hold your hand?"

" **No**." The little blonde girl flinched at the sharp tone in the teen's voice. "I told you, I don't like to touch humans." The masked teen untied the black cloth belt at his waist, holding one end while he offered the other end to the child. "Since you're lost and I happen to know how to get you out, whatever I say goes. Got it?" The girl nodded vigorously, unwilling to cross the teen who could either lead her out or leave her to her own devices. "Then hold your end and I'll lead you out."

The blonde child grabbed the other end of the belt, holding it like a lifeline. She looked up nervously at the teen with the wolf mask. "Th-thank you," she said.

The teen made a sound under his mask that the girl couldn't make sense of. "Don't thank me just yet," the teen warned as he moved forward, tugging the girl along with him into the forest.

The two walked together in silence, neither saying a word to the other. The child wanted to make an attempt at a small conversation, but the teen didn't seem to want to talk to her. They passed by several small shrines covered in moss and even stone statues with odd faces, some of them bordering on frightening. The girl whimpered in fear, causing the teen to look at her and see what had scared her.

"Those are the _Oni_ ," he explained when his eyes landed on the ogre-like statue. "They're demons that eat children who come here without permission."

"Th-they're not going to eat me, are they?" The girl asked nervously.

The teen didn't answer as a set of stone steps appeared. The little girl recognized them as the stairs she went up to get up here until she got lost. As though he just remembered her question, he answered, "As long as you don't come here at sundown."

"At sundown?"

"That's when they wake up, and the Oni will eat any human they find by then," he said as they started down the steps.

"So you're not an Oni, right?" The girl looked up at the masked teen. "You can't be an Oni since it's not night yet!"

"...I'm not an Oni," the teen agreed as the oriental gate—the _torii_ —grew closer and closer. "But I'm still not a human. Remember that."

The duo reached the end of the stone steps, standing just a few meters from the gate that marked the border between the path to civilization and the sacred mountain. In her joy, the child ran ahead of the teen, losing her balance when the cloth belt escaped from her grasp. She looked back at the masked teen who stood on the other side of the gate. "Aren't you coming?" she asked.

"Where could I go if I did?" He answered with his own question. "Just like the spirits and demons who live here, I have to stay. So do me a favor, little girl, and go back home."

As he began to turn away, the girl shouted to him, "I'm Lucy! Can you tell me your name?"

The teen froze, turning his head slightly so he could look at her. "Now why would you want to know my name?"

Lucy pouted as an annoyed expression formed on her face. "If I don't know your name, I can't thank you for leading me out of the forest!"

A cloud passed by the sun, casting a shadow on the base of the mountain. For a moment, the teen seemed to resemble the wolf that his mask depicted.

Should he tell her his name? But what good would it do? She was scared when he found her and she couldn't find her way back. If he gave her his name, there was no guarantee that she would return. Why would she want to come back to the mountain that she couldn't leave?

Lucy seemed to pick up on his reluctance to answer and decided to leave. "Well, if you don't want to tell me, will you be here tomorrow? I'll come back with a thank you gift!"

 _Interesting_ , he thought as the girl started down the shorter set of steps that led to the path to town. She didn't seem to fear him since she asked him to wait for her here. Could he trust her to keep her promise? She was a child, and children were usually honest.

But the child was still a _human_. Could he really trust a _human_ to come back to a spirit-infested mountain?

Deciding to take his chances, the teen lifted his mask just until his mouth was visible and called, "My name is Dobengal."

* * *

 **Surprised by the ending?**

 **No, I was not on anything when I decided to write this crack pairing. I just thought I'd try it out.**

 **Yes, I realize I could have made some another male character** — **i.e. Natsu, Gray, Sting, Rogue, or any of the usual men Lucy is paired with** — **as the love interest. But** **really, the usual Lucy pairings (NaLu, StiCy, RoLu, etc.) are overdone. So I have decided to deviate from the beaten path!**

 **Yes, I will update Remember Me? and The Unwound Future. The problem is, the inspiration that helped me write those stories decided to ditch me! It's so frustrating!**

 **Tell me what you think!**


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